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"October Sky" is based on the true story of four boys who enlist their small town of Coalwood, West Virginia to help them build a rocket in October of 1957. The Cold War is on, the USSR has just launched Sputnik, and Americans in general are afraid. But Homer Hickham (Jake Gyllenhaal), the dreamer of the four boys, wants to be part of the space race; he wants to build a rocket. See, the only way anyone can hope to get out of Coalwood and avoid the coal mines is to get a sports scholarship to college. From the start of the film, we know that football is not Homer's game, but he is still determined to get out. The boys' dream is to take an amateur rocket to the National Science Fair and get out of Coalwood on science scholarships, avoiding their destiny as coal miners. The film follows Homer and his buddies throughout this process, through the inclusion of the local nerd, through trig and calculus, through fights with dads, through love interests, through rockets that won't fly straight, and even being arrested.Other reviews have touted this as being the realized American dream, and maybe it is. However the film explores more than the soapbox that Americans stand on. Perhaps the US does offer more opportunity than any other country in the world. The US does have resources and opportunities unlike any other country (you might say we hoard them). But the real conflict in the movie does not come from Homer fighting his way to the top; it comes from fighting with his father. It's the classic scenario. Dad wants boy to follow in his footsteps. Boy wants to do his own thing. Dad gets mad and hurt. Boy feels pressured and rebels. Father stops speaking to boy. Boy stands up for self and earns respect of Dad. The End. We've seen this before, both in the movies as well as our own lives. We have heard the psychological theories of why parents put their hopes in their children. What is it about having a child that is simultaneously so frightening and so hopeful? What do parents think about and expect for their children's lives? Nearly always there is the hope that we will do a little bit better than they did, that they will feel secure in having given us a stable and successful future, that there is something that is physically and emotionally "them" that will exist after they die. The question of eternity is inextricable from the parent-child relationship. Being made for eternity we have an inherent desire to search for ways to "live on" after we die. What we don't get is that we already are going to live forever, it's more a question of where. Thus, we spend our lives making names for ourselves, becoming known, even if it is in a small community in the back woods of West Virginia. These two things, eternity and the desire to be known are inextricably part of our being, placed there by God in hopes that we would long to know him and be near him. There is a strange love that exists between parent and child. Is a good love usually, almost entirely selfless, it is the love of a dreamer and creator, of someone hopeful. But how often do parents invest the dreams they had for themselves in their children, how often does it become something selfish and controlling? Even the best of parents feel a twinge of disappointment and fear as the child they thought would go to medical school finds happiness waiting tables in a café. And so is the relationship between Homer and his father, John (Chris Cooper). There is no doubt in the audience's mind that John Hickham is a good and loving father. He wants the best for his boys. The problem however is that what's best for the boys was planned before they were born. As Homer comes into his own, it is a matter of affirming each other in their roles as father and as son, as independent men. It is about letting go of the things that John puts his hopes in falsely, and recognizing that Homer, the man he has helped to create is an eternal being outside of him. It is about realizing that eternity and being known does not come from the positions we hold, the success we experience, or the things we create. It come from being in relation with each other and with God, it comes from knowing ourselves better and thereby knowing each other. We are eternal, we are like our fathers and mothers, our lives in fact do have a plan, but we ourselves cannot dream them alone. Our imaginations are insufficient, our wills imperfect. We ourselves should not be put into roles and occupations they we were not meant for. It is true in families, and it is true in our lives independent of families. This film is less about the American Dream, and more about The Dream, the only dream that there ever really is. The dream of being able to live the life we were called to live, the life we want to live, the life we were in fact created to live. Here's the thing though... the dreams don't come from a country, or from parents, or from college... they come from God.
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